Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021

Hawassa University College of Agriculture

Faculty of Environment, Gender and

Development Studies (FEGDS)

Department of Agricultural Economics

(Master’s in AgEco)

SOFTWARE APPLICATION (INTRODUCTION TO SPSS)

Prepared By:
Kutoya Kusse Gemede

HAWASSA, ETHIOPIA
Topics to be covered in this group assignment are:
Introduction to SPSS software
Starting and Entering SPSS
Main Features of SPSS
Entering and Saving Data in SPSS
Importing Data from Excel and Stata software
Simple Data Manipulations
Performing Descriptive Statistics

1. Introduction to SPSS software

SPSS is one the professional software which enables us to work with statistical analysis. It is
intended to evaluate any statistical formula. We can perform complex statistical analysis on
research data in a matter of minutes, or even seconds.

SPSS allows us to undertake a wide range of statistical analyses relatively easily while this is
extremely useful we do need to know what analysis is appropriate to the data we have.

Before we enter any data into SPSS, we need to think about what type of data we have and what
we want to do with it. For example, we may have the details of a person’s gender (male or
female) and their preference for a certain product. Are we trying to find differences within our
data or any relationships? Or do we just want to summaries and describe it?

What is the level (measurement) of our data? Is it nominal (where the data is labeled by the
category it belongs to, such as gender), ordinal (where the data defines an order, such as farmer’s
rating of their preference for various technologies), interval or ratio (where the data is measured
on a scale of equal intervals). This needs to be considered before entering any data. Nominal data
can be used as a „grouping variable‟ when analyzing data in SPSS.
2. Starting and Entering SPSS
If SPSS is already installed on desktop, double click on the SPSS icon.
Open SPSS via the Start Menu

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 Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021
Start > All Programs > SPSS for Windows > SPSS 15.0 for Windows Graduate Pack
• Your SPSS Version Number may be different.

3. Main Features of SPSS

Four Main Bars
1. The Title Bar
2. The Menu Bar
3. The Tool Bar
4. The Status Bar

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1 TITLE BAR

Name of File Type of Window

2 MENU BAR


Located below the Title Bar

Lists a set of the actions/procedures that can be performed

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
Uses point and click format to choose from the Pull-Down Menus selection of actions
Action Common Uses
FILE √ Open a new file
√ Import data into SPSS from an existing text file, Excel spreadsheet or
Database
√ Save the data file
√ Exit SPSS for Windows
EDIT √ To make changes to the data - Copy, Paste, Insert Variables, Insert
Cases etc.
VIEW √ Hide or show Status bar or Toolbar
√ Change font or point size of the data
√ Hide or show gridlines
√ Switch between Data View and Variable View
DATA √ To manipulate existing SPSS data files - Define variables, Sort cases,
Merge files, Split files, Select cases, Weight cases etc.
TRANSFORM √ Perform computations on variables – Create new variables from existing
ones. Recode old variables etc.
ANALYZE √ Contains extensive list of statistical analysis that can be conducted: Ex:
Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Regression etc.
GRAPHS √ To obtain high resolution plots and graphs, this can be edited in Chart
Editor Window.
UTILITIES √ To move to any open window or to see which window is active. The
window with a check mark is the active one.
ADD-ONS √ Contains a number of Additional Advanced SPSS Products that can be
purchased separately and used in conjunction with the base product. Ex:
SPSS Conjoint, SPSS Tables, SPSS Maps etc.
WINDOW √ To move to any open window or to see which window is active. The
window with a check mark is the active one.
HELP √ To get help on topics in SPSS via a Predefined List of Topics, Tutorial,
Statistics Coach, Syntax Guide etc.

3. TOOL BAR

Located below the Menu Bar

Contains a number of buttons which act as shortcuts
Roll cursor over each button to see its function

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4. STATUS BAR

Procedures being run indicate whether data are being filtered, weighted or subdivided

Three Primary Windows


The Data Editor Window
– Data Viewer
– Variable Viewer

The Output Viewer Window

– Contains all the results from performing analyses, e.g. syntax, tables,
charts etc.

The Syntax Editor Window
– Used to write SPSS programs to run procedures

– Used as an alternative to running analyses via the commands in the Menu Bar
The Data Editor Window

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 Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021
Output Viewer Window

Syntax Editor Window

Entering and Saving Data in SPSS

Example: - Factors that affect the GPA of agricultural economics students

A/ Id no. of the student: __________________

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 Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021
B/ Gender of the student; 0= male 1=female

C/ Age of the student: ______________

D/ GPA of the student: ______________

E/ Class participation of the student: 0=good 1= very good 2=excellent

F/ studying hours in a day: _____________

ID 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Gender 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
Age 43 28 32 40 30 27 25 34 26 38
GPA 3.2 3.0 3.6 3.4 4.0 3.8 3.6 3.5 4.0 3.7
Participation 0 0 1 0 2 2 1 1 2 2
Studying 6 4 8 7 10 9 12 10 6 5
hours

Survey on factors that affect the GPA of agricultural economics students

Setting up variables

• Click on the Variable View Tab at the bottom left of the Data Editor Screen
• Each row represents one of the variables
• Each column represents a specific characteristic/attribute of the variable

Name
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• In the first column, enter the Name of the Variable.

• Each name must be unique
• It can be up to 64 characters long
• The name cannot begin with a number of contain spaces
• Keep names short but descriptive of variable
Type

• In the second column, click on right of this column

• Select the Variable Type
• The Default is Numeric
• If Numeric, select the Width - Number of digits as well as the Number of Decimal
Places
• The Default is Width – 8, Decimal Place - 2
Label


Label allows you to provide the variable with a longer, more complete description
Value Labels

• Used for describing the labels of the categories for Nominal or Ordinal (Categorical) Data

Missing Values

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• Used to define specific values as being Missing values: non-response, refusal (e.g. 9, 99)

• Column Width

• The value used for column width indicates how wide the display for each variable will be
in the Data View.
• Column widths can also be changed in Data View, by clicking and dragging the
column borders.
Alignment
• Determines how the data for this variable are aligned in their cells in the Data View
Window
Measurement Level

• Specify the variable‟s measurement level as:

– Nominal
– Ordinal
– Scale (Interval or Ratio)

Entering the Data

• Give code for each observations first

• Click on the Data View Tab at the bottom left of the Data Editor Screen and then start
entering the data
Saving Data

• To Save all the data from the surveys

– Go to File > Save As
– Choose a file location
– SPSS saves the file as
– Select Save
Importing Data from Excel and STATA software’s

• Select File > Open > Data

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• Next, select the folder where the file is located via Look in:
• Change file type to Excel (*.xls)
• Select the name of the file and click Open
• An Excel Data Source Dialogue Box will open
– Select box to read variables names from the first row, if the first line of the Excel
spreadsheet lists the header names
– Verify the data range
• Select OK
• Save File as a SPSS (*.sav) file
Simple Data Manipulations

• Transform and recode the variable in an SPSS software is undertaken in two ways
as follows;

The 1st way

• Select Transform > Recode into a Different Variables in order to create a new
variable
– Choosing Recoding into Same Variables will overwrite the existing data.
A “Recode into a Different Variables” dialog box will appear
• Highlight the variable and use the arrow to move that variable into the Input
Variable Output Variable box.
• In the Name box under the Output Variable section, type the new variable name and type the
Variable Label, then Click the CHANGE button
• Select the Old and New Values Button. This tell SPSS how to recode the data into
our new categories
• Another Dialog window will appear

The 2nd way

• Click on the bottom left of the screen to switch to Variable View and define the values for
this new variable
• If you want to delete unnecessary variable or case click on it and the right click, then click
clear variable or case

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 Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021
• Change to the Data View Window to verify whether these changes have been made.
• Resave the SPSS file
7. Performing Descriptive Statistics

The type of data determines the choice of statistical analysis

Categorical Variables
• Select Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Frequencies
• A Frequencies dialog box will appear
• Move the categorical variables, using the arrow into the Variables choice box
• Click on Statistics

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 Software Application (Introduction to SPSS) 2021
Categorical Variables

Under Central Tendency, select Mode, then Select CONTINUE

Select Charts. Under Chart Type, select Bar Charts. Under Chart Values, select
Percentages

Select CONTINUE, then OK.
Numerical Variables

Select Analyze > Descriptive Statistics > Descriptive

A Descriptive dialog box will appear

Move the numerical variables, using the arrow into the Variables choice box

Click on the Options button
Numerical Variables

Ensure that the options Mean, Std Deviation, Minimum and Maximum are selected

If you are interested in the Skewness or Kurtosis of the distribution you can select
those as well

Select CONTINUE, then OK.
Summary
You should now be able to:
√ Start up and enter SPSS
√ Enter and Save Data in SPSS
√ Import data from an Excel spreadsheet and STATA into SPSS
√ Recode a variable
√ Conduct simple descriptive statistics in SPSS
References

An Introduction to SPSS Workshop Session conducted by: Dr. C yndi Garvan Grace-Anne Jackman

SPSS Statistics 17.0 Brief Guidei

All group members are actively participated in document writing up to ppt preparation

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